12 Ways to Make Tomato Soup

1. ChunkyFlavor your soup with onions and fennel. Puree half for a more rustic texture.

2. With beetsMake a riff on vegetarian borscht by blending beets and cumin into your tomato soup and top with crème fraîche; serve it pureed or chunky.

3. With fresh tomatoesMany tomato soups rely on cooked canned tomatoes; Jacques Pépin, however, uses fresh and brightens it up with basil oil.

4. Creamy styleTo round out the flavor of tangy tomatoes, add heavy cream to your soup base and top with buttery croutons.

5. SmokySmoke tomatoes indoors with wood chips, a cast-iron skillet, a small rack and a sheet of foil. Then puree with cooked vegetables, herbs and a hit of horseradish. Even simpler, skip the wood chips and add smoked paprika to your soup.

6. With olives and fetaTurn your tomato soup into a riff on Greek salad, just like chef David Chang.

7. With fresh and canned tomatoesTo create a soup with layers of flavor, chef Alex Guarnaschelli cooks fresh tomatoes with sugar until they’re charred and adds a hit of Pernod. She then cooks canned tomatoes with garlic and fennel and purees it all together.

8. With roasted tomatoesRoasting tomatoes concentrates their sweetness; it’s a good trick for using fresh tomatoes in the dead of winter.

Kristin Donnelly is a former Food & Wine editor and author of the forthcoming The Modern Potluck (Clarkson Potter, 2016) and the blog Eat Better, Drink Better. She is also the cofounder of Stewart & Claire, an all-natural line of lip balms made in Brooklyn.